Various mesh protocols may be used in computer networks in order to form directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and trees to allow devices within the DAG to reach a root device or “clusterhead” (e.g., a “sink”). Often, that root device may interconnect the devices of the DAG with a larger infrastructure, such as the Internet, a wide area network, or other domain.
In certain applications, such as wireless device implementations (e.g., sensor networks), DAGs are formed that provide an alternate next-hop towards the root device for most of the devices in the network due to the lossy nature of the network. Unfortunately, an arbitrary DAG toward the root may not result in the same desired redundancy properties in a reverse direction. In other words, even if the DAG approaches the goal of alternate next-hops for as many devices as possible toward the root (an “up” direction), reversing the same DAG, a typical technique to create routes from the root to arbitrary destinations (a “down” direction), does not necessarily provide alternate next-hops towards the destinations.